Golden Moon Tea

I am having this for the second time and I think my tea palate is developing. I am enjoying the very natural coconut flavor which enhances, rather than covers, the underlying pouchong. It is almost buttery. I am really enjoying it as an after dinner tea.

The coconut smell is making me think of summer. The flavors of coconut and oolong blend well together and nothing is too overpowering. There is a slight floral note to the whole tasting experience that is difficult for me to characterize. Anyway, it is tasty!

I prefer black tea, but this tea won me over! Great taste in tea and coconut. Prefect after a long bike ride

This was a sample from Kittenna. Thank you so much for passing it along!

Okay, oolong – it’s been a while since I’ve played with the greener counterparts. Normally I’m a huge fan of darker (e.g. dan cong) varieties, but I love coconut so much I will pretty much try it in everything. I’ve never had pouchong but it seems to look like a Ti Kwan Yin so I’m guessing this will yield a vegetal, buttery flavor. Looking forward to it!

The dry leaf smell is just, WOW. It smells like toasted coconut, like macaroons. These are not new descriptors (they are in a lot of the other tasting notes) but I’m still surprised to smell them myself. And it makes me realize that of all the other coconut blends I’ve tried, none has had this exact toasted coconut smell. I didn’t know what I was missing. Seriously. This gets 90 of its possible 100 points just for the smell alone.

The whole sample was 3 tsp. so I put it in my Breville with 500 ml. water at the below parameters. I won’t be adding any sugar or milk to this because I just can’t seem to make myself do that to any green-ish teas. But the smell emanating from the Breville isn’t worrying me – I’m pretty sure no additives will be needed.

I was right – I still get the amazing toasted coconut smell once steeped. The taste is the same as it smells! Except with an added bonus of buttery oolong to round out the mouthfeel. This is simple and complex, sweet and savory at once.

Since I used the entire sample on this batch, I’m probably going to put it through its paces today and get some resteeps going. I am curious to see how the flavor changes and how many steepings I can eke out of the leaves. Even if it’s just one, though, it has been SO worth it.

This ones going on my shopping list for sure. And if anyone knows of any other teas with this kind of coconut flavoring, I am all ears!

ETA: The second steep (at 6 minutes) retains most of the coconut (yay!) and loses alot of the brightness from the oolong (maybe that was what people thought of as floral?). In general this cup is heavier and less buttery. I’m surprised at how strong the coconut still is really. I’m sure I could actually get at least one more steep out of it, even. Will have to give it a try!

I received this tea from Alphakitty months ago, but with moving house, plus pregnancy, plus being home with a toddler means I sometimes forget things. Today, though, I’ve been nursing a cup of this all day, thanks to being able to multi-steep. However, I can’t write a long note since my 26-month-old has decided that she wants to avoid napping in favour of throwing every blanket + plush toy out of the crib, THEN testing her mattress for weaknesses via repeated jumping. This nap = not happening.

This tea = getting me through it all! PLUS, since it’s an oolong and I can steep it multiple times I get to stay hydrated as well. Win/win. I’m loving the caramel paired with creamy oolong… interesting how with each consecutive steep the caramel slowly fades until all I’m left with is the oolong. Yum, yum.

Now, to check on this manic tot of mine… uuuuuuuurgh.

Pretty good, but not getting any real strong flavors that I’d expect. The sugar and caramel are more on the nose, not so much in the tea. But still enjoyable.

Sample. Very mild. Smells pretty sweet and vanilla-y, but doesn’t taste like vanilla.

Sample. Can definitely taste/smell the ginger. Is okay. I actually like ginger a lot in baked goods, but I think I’d prefer to keep my ginger out of tea. Unless it’s Chai!

Sample. LOVED this tea. By far my favorite so far from the sampler pack I got a few weeks ago. Sweet (without any sweetener!), lightly tastes and smells of melon. Lovely. Will try a few more melon teas though before deciding if I want to reorder or not.

Sample. Was surprised by the very light color of this black tea. The smell is wonderful. Very lightly floral. Reminds me a little of Upton’s Moonlight Castleton Estate tea. I thought however that the scent didn’t transfer over to the taste. Didn’t taste like much of anything. Keeping in mind I definitely don’t have a very sophisticated palate.

Sample. Good! I always like to have a mint tea on hand. Not sure if I would choose this over my usual Upton’s Moroccan Mint though.

Sample. Confirmed my suspicion that I do not like rose flavored anything.

Sample. Short end of the stick? Interesting. My first Pu-erh. Before brewing the leaves definitely smelled very cinnamon-y and orange-y. Was totally taken aback by the color of the tea. So dark, and unlike any tea I’ve seen before. Had the first few sips plain and it was weird. Not terrible but I definitely didn’t like it. The smell had something off putting behind the spices that I can’t put my finger on. The taste was a little odd too. But added a touch of half&half and honey, and it became much better. The weird smell/taste diminished. The dominant spice seems to be cinnamon. I kind of like it. Totally unsure if I’d order more. But of the 10-15 Golden Moon samples I’ve had so far, this is in the top two.

Sample. First steep at boiling and 4 minutes was really bitter for me, even with my usual touch of half&half and honey. Dumped it out. But based on other reviews, I decided to steep it again, but this time for 3:30, and that was better. Had plain, then added some sugar, then some half&half. All were fine. To me, just tasted like a mild black tea.

Eh, not my favourite tea, but far from the worst. I made a double batch of this for brunch today since DH doesn’t like heavily flavoured teas…he actually likes the Red Rose, PG Tips, Twinnings variety of English tea. I thought I had my packet of Darjeeling from DAVIDs left, but turns out I have already had that, and the packet was Tung Ting Vietnam instead. So I looked at this and Golden Fleece instead. I opted for this because I thought the intricacies of the Golden Fleece might be lost on him, and I wanted it all for myself, but also because I thought he might be ok with the Madagascar Vanilla instead. In retrospect, I think I probably would have preferred the Golden Fleece today, but oh well, more for me later.

This just feels a bit weak. Maybe it was my brewing. That said, it is not very astringent, and that is a nice thing. Thanks to indigobloom for sending this to me to try. I don’t know that I’ve ever have heard of it any other way.

Sample. Disappointed. Okay, but didn’t detect any floral notes. But after reading other reviews can see that maybe it’s because of the boiling water. Darn. Wish I could try again!

Sample. I like white tea. I like licorice. But I do not like herbal teas, and this tastes like an herbal tea to me.

Sample. Simmered 6 minutes in 8oz of whole milk. I love chai, but I did not like this at all. Thought it was weak, and didn’t enjoy the spice combo.

Sample. Had high hopes for this one, but really didn’t like it so much, darn it. Didn’t seem particularly jasmine-y or vanilla-y.